| Seen all▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| Aeon Flux (live-action movie) | Good | Wow, now it all makes sense... |
| Akira (movie) | Decent | Not a terrible piece of filmmaking. I know it is an anime landmark, I just don't get the hype. |
| Appleseed (movie) | Good | Good example of CGI done well. A good example when the CGI becomes more important than good storytelling. It's a technique, not a crutch. |
| Appleseed: Ex Machina (movie) | Decent | Yet again, CGI and pretty backgrounds are not a substitute for good storytelling. Wow, one great big FF (fill in the number here) cutscene... wait-a-minit... wasn't that FFVII AC? Call it AC with more guns and bots. |
| Armitage III: Poly-Matrix (movie) | Decent | "A" list actors as voice talent does not a blockbuster or landmark make. |
| Azumanga Daioh (TV) | Very good | Fun romp. A guilty pleasure. |
| Black Jack The Movie | Weak | Started well, decended into predictability with a Deus Ex Machina ending. |
| Black Lagoon (TV) | Excellent | Off the beaten track as an anime. Reminds me a bit of Bebop, but unlike Bebop the lead characters are not working with the law, but against it. |
| Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage (TV) | Excellent | Lives up to the first set of episodes as expected. |
| Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody | Decent | One has to have an understanding of who is who from the series to follow this, or have a Bleach-Bum at your elbow to provide commentary and liner notes. |
| Blood: The Last Vampire (movie) | Good | Like eating only one M n' M, leaves you wanting more. Well executed as a visual "drabble". |
| Bubblegum Crisis (OAV) | Decent | Fond, bad old memories of the 80's. Guilty pleasure. |
| Castle in the Sky (movie) | Excellent | It's Miyazaki... |
| (The) Cat Returns (movie) | Excellent | It's Studio Ghibli... |
| (Le) Chevalier D'Eon (TV) | Very good | Historical pieces can be difficult, Gonzo made this look easy. Well done all around. |
| Cosplay Complex (OAV) | Decent | Amusing. Cosplay anime is generally an excuse for a lot of gratuitous fanservice. This was no exception. |
| Cowboy Bebop (TV) | Excellent | 1998 was a good year. Excellent gateway series into anime. Very approachable from the Western perspective. |
| Demon City Shinjuku (OAV) | Decent | Set phasers for dangerously cheesy. |
| Desert Punk (TV) | Very good | Fun romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Infinitely quotable. |
| Divergence Eve (TV) | Good | There is a pretty promising story in here supported by some decent CGI. The female lead characters are interesting and need support only the science of the far future could provide. One of the enlistment requirments must be a huge rack as ALL of the military women in this series have a G or better. Oh, what is up with the closing sequence? |
| Dominion Tank Police (OAV) | Decent | Cute, funny. |
| Eiken (OAV) | Decent | How does one describe this? Risque? Bouncy? A shotgun blast of fanboy fetishes? However it is described, I found myself teetering between cringing embarassment and laughing so hard I snorted. |
| Elfen Lied (TV) | Excellent | Horror is not necessarily gore, although violent graphic depictions adds to the sense of the horrific. Horror is that knowing departure from the norm; the further the more horrible. This series does that quite well. |
| Ergo Proxy (TV) | Masterpiece | This anime ties in the visual, sound, background music and plot into an entire experience. Well worth waiting for. |
| Escaflowne: The Movie | Decent | Good summary of the collection. |
| Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (movie) | Decent | I did not hate this as I did the TV series. This was actually halfway decent and did itself the favor of dropping the Judeo-Christian spiritualistic trappings. |
| Excel Saga (TV) | Very good | Loved the first half... the most insane and hysterical I have seen thus far. Lost a little of the insanity midway, but still enjoyable. |
| Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (movie) | Decent | Didn't play the game, so the movie felt a little disconnected. |
| Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (US CG movie) | Decent | Pretty decent across the board with an almost "Ghibliesque" environmental message. |
| FLCL (OAV) | Very good | Nuckin futs. |
| Full Metal Panic! (TV) | Good | Typical line up of characters for a high school set-piece: boy does something stupid/ecchi, gets hit by female lead , hilarity ensues. Difference here is Sousuke is so earnest about what he does. He is very capable and aware; his personality is just so unsuited for the environment. There within lies the humor. |
| Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (TV) | Very good | Lots of fun had here. PONY! |
| Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (TV) | Very good | Surprisingly true to Dumas (both good and bad). Visually busy, but not too much so. |
| Gantz (TV) | Decent | Not quite sure what to make of this. It is very intriguing, but it did not completely hold my interest for some reason. |
| Geobreeders (OAV) | Decent | Was a little disjointed for me for some reason. Good fun otherwise. |
| Geobreeders: Breakthrough (OAV) | So-so | I am drawing a blank... was this that forgettable? |
| Ghost in the Shell (movie) | Masterpiece | This is what good storytelling is all about. |
| Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (movie) | Excellent | Sub was tough to watch, so much going on visually found the subtitles distracting. Dub was excellent, although this does not get the same rating as the film as it was accessable without prior knowledge. |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV) | Excellent | Story arc was engaging and well written, visually well done. Definitely the inheritor of the manga. Kusanagi is the strongest female character I have ever seen in any form, truly the "emperor's sword". |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Individual Eleven (OAV) | Weak | It hurt to watch this. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE DUB? I can accept a new voice for a favorite character, but the VA's here DID NOT EVEN TRY. They read off of cue cards. What an utter disaster and a waste of time. |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man (OAV) | Weak | See GitS:SAC-IE, same comment. |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG (TV) | Excellent | Even better than the first season for story, visuals, sound and music. |
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society (movie) | Excellent | I cannot think of a US release which I have anticipated as eagerly as this movie. I was not disappointed. Tight storytelling with superb and stunning visuals. Consistent with Gits:SAC in characterizations and setting with the added bonus of feature film resources. Anime may have finally grown up... |
| Girls Bravo (TV) | Decent | Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be, although when EACH episode begins with "sad girl in bath/shower" one could be misled into thinking this was hentai. Story was unremarkable but one supporting character made it worth watching: Fukuyama Kazuharu. What a smarmosaur! He is The Smarmosaurus Rex! |
| (The) Gokusen (TV) | Very good | Still trying to figure this one out... and that is probably why I like it. |
| Heat Guy J (TV) | Excellent | Very pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the characters and setting. Background music fit for each character, J's is a nice touch... |
| Hellsing (TV) | Excellent | My first anime love. Good take on the vampire hunter genre. |
| Howl's Moving Castle (movie) | Excellent | It's Miyazaki... |
| Ikki Tousen (TV) | Decent | Beyond the predictable story and blindingly obvious fanservice, this was pretty funny. This felt like a spoof of the whole shonen fighting anime genre. |
| Jungle de Ikou! (OAV) | Good | Fun bit of eye-candy. |
| Karas (OAV) | So-so | What exactly is going on here? Looks pretty but not even a sliver of exposition. |
| Labyrinth of Flames (OAV) | Very good | Funny stuff. I do love stupid non-sequiturs (look for the towel in the bath scene "whap!"). |
| Last Exile (TV) | Excellent | Gonzo yet again hits one out of the park. |
| Lucky Star (TV) | Very good | Fun little meta-show. |
| Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (movie) | Excellent | Enjoyable visit with Lupin and the whole cast. You cannot go wrong when Miyazaki is at the helm. |
| Martian Successor Nadesico (TV) | Very good | Great send up of Mecha/Space Opera/EVA. Dated but still an enjoyable watch. |
| Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness | Good | Nice conclusion, felt a little forced. |
| Maze (OAV) | Good | Shut your brain off and just enjoy it for what it is... shameless fanservice. |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV) | Excellent | Supernatural events through the eyes of an everyman. Not typical schoolchildren battling evil. VA work is excellent, it would be hard to fail by casting the LA crowd. |
| Mezzo (TV) | Very good | Funny, actually found a good story in here. Pleasantly surprised. |
| Mezzo Forte (OAV) | Very good | Blood, guns and sex. This comment based on the somewhat edited version. Fun in a shut your brain off and enjoy way. |
| Misaki Chronicles (TV) | Good | I find myself eagerly looking foward to each episode. Pacing and story are good, I think the "bounciness" was a marketing decision, not a creative one. |
| Mushi-Shi (TV) | Excellent | There is something to be said about the quiet neutrality of the stories. Nature is, and we as humans are part of that "is" whether we like it or not. |
| Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (movie) | Excellent | It's Miyazaki... |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV) | Bad | This is a psychoanalytic (in the LITERARY sense) coming of age story. As teens we see challenges and problems in our lives as grand and dramatic. The storyline is that of a teen, Shinji, working through the trials and tribulations as an adolescent exaggerated to the point of the surreal. The Kabbalistic and Gnostic Christian trappings are rather irrelevant, as are the sci-fi. The major problem here is not how the themes were approached, but that too many themes were incorporated in the first place, burying the story. The failure here was that the scope was too broad. |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (movie) | Bad | This was essentially a two hour recap episode. See comment above for "NGE". |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (movie) | Worst ever | Sex, gore and hollow pseudo-religious trappings sell like hotcakes to the EVA culties, making this film the ultimate in a "fanjob". I was satisfied with the ending presented in NGE TV; DaR and EoE were an unnecessary waste of resources. |
| Ninja Scroll (movie) | Good | Fun T+A bloody violence. Gave anime its "bad" rep. Yay bad reps! |
| Noir (TV) | Not really good | When it was good, it was good. The other half was filler. |
| Origin ~Spirits of the Past~ (movie) | Decent | Would have made a better series than a movie. |
| Otaku no Video (OAV) | Good | A peek into the beginning, almost a documentary into the origins of the fanbase. |
| Ouran High School Host Club (TV) | Good | I am not a fan of the Shonen-ai or BL genre, but spoofing it works for me. |
| Paprika (movie) | Masterpiece | A fine example of what animation can do that live-action cannot. |
| Parasite Dolls (OAV) | Excellent | There are those rare occasions when a spinoff is better than the source material. This ranks with the GitS film and Serial Experiments Lain for dark, involved storylines. Who would have thought BGC could have a "serious" tone? |
| Perfect Blue (movie) | Very good | Satoshi Kon screws with our brains again, good stuff. |
| Plastic Little (OAV) | Decent | Exactly what I expected, fanservice. "Jiggle Meter" was a nice touch. |
| Porco Rosso (movie) | Excellent | It's Miyazaki... |
| Princess Mononoke (movie) | Excellent | It's Miyazaki... |
| Project A-ko (movie) | Decent | Felt the need to watch, referred back to in many other anime and within the fanbase as a whole. |
| Puni Puni Poemy (OAV) | Good | The "magical girl" genre earned this tasteless, yet entertaining spoof. |
| Read or Die (OAV) | Good | Fanservice, a plot, good voice acting and a unique premise; the OAV tries to do too much and misses. This would have been better as a 13 or 26 ep series. |
| Rune Soldier (TV) | Good | A funny spoof of the fantasy set. |
| Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture | Decent | Good introduction to the Kenshin series of OVA and episodes. |
| Samurai Champloo (TV) | Very good | What I enjoy the most is the Attitude. The fight scenes are well done, too... |
| Serial Experiments Lain (TV) | Very good | Mindscrew. Interesting commentary on our own "Wired" society. |
| Space Battleship Yamato (movie) | Very good | A classic... no, the classic sci-fi movie. |
| Spirited Away (movie) | Excellent | It's Miyazaki... |
| Starship Operators (TV) | Good | Good take on space combat, just a lot of characters to keep track of. |
| Steamboy (movie) | Very good | Good story and interesting setting. |
| Step Up Love Story (OAV) | Good | For hentai, this was rather charming. It watched much like an instructional video without the stuffy narration. |
| Strait Jacket (OAV) | Very good | I hate it when an anime teases but doesn't follow through. I would like to see more. |
| Trigun (TV) | Very good | Gee, whoever wrote this read Frank Herbert, huh? Vash=Muad'dib? |
| Vampire Hunter D (OAV) | Very good | A bit dated, but holding its own. |
| Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (movie) | Good | Visually stunning, nice update to VHD. |
| Vexille - 2077 Isolation of Japan (movie) | Bad | All style and no substance. This was WORSE than both Appleseed CGI films for story content. |
| Witch Hunter Robin (TV) | Excellent | The slow pace and dark tone worked well in this series. One could empathize with all of the characters. No "good guys" or "bad guys", just people with motivations. |
| Witchblade (TV) | Very good | Working out to be an interesting take on the comic. I like the voice change with the physical change, as fan service-y as it might be. It took quite an emotional turn. I don't know if I can watch the scene when mother explains a hard truth to daughter again. |
| Wolf's Rain (TV) | Good | A little melodramatic for my taste, but am going to temper my judgement on this one. |
| xxxHOLiC (TV) | Excellent | I like the story concept and the art. I didn't think I would get hooked on a CLAMP title but one never does know. |
| xxxHOLiC the Movie: A Midsummer Night's Dream | Excellent | Superb piece of storytelling. The style and animation work were a joy to watch. |
